GRNMA urges Gov’t to adequately resource frontline workers

The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has called on the government to adequately resource public health nurses and other front-line workers to effectively and efficiently discharge their duties during the nationwide novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine exercise for the citizenry across the country.

The Association has however urged the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to use their good offices to introduce health policies and incentives to safeguard the health workers in the performance of their duties especially insurance packages when nurses become victims of COVID-19 infection.

“Public nurses will play a significant role in leading the campaign of the COVID-19 Vaccine roll out across the country to commence on the 2nd of March, 2021, hence they must be well resourced with the needed Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) as well as cash and in-kind in their line of duty. The President of the GRNMA, Mrs. Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo made the call at a seminar under the theme, “COVID-19 Vaccine Roll out in Ghana: The Role of the Nurse and Midwife” at the GRNMA national secretariat at Shaishie, a suburb of Accra.

According to her, stakeholders in the health sector have embarked on sensitization programmes to scale up the awareness campaign on safety and efficacy of the vaccines as well as outdooring COVID-19 ambassadors to champion the relevance of the vaccine through advocacy and education, adding that the sector ministry will duly rollout the programmes to effect the vaccines impact, safety, and reliability.She, therefore, urged the citizenry to have confidence in the vaccine and be part of the vaccination exercise to boost their immune system, adding that it is the surest way to protect them from the infection of the COVID-19 virus.

In an address, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said the government have secured vaccines from abroad as part of the effort to engage the public on mass vaccination and called on all to cooperate with the health officials, adding that the move will help curb the spread of the virus.

According to him, a lot of financial investments have been sunk in the procurement of the vaccines and commended all stakeholders to intensify the education of the importance of the vaccine on their health.

He said that government will ensure that the vaccination will be carried throughout the country.

Contributing via zoom, Founding Member and National President of North America Ghana Nurses Foundation (NAGNF), Ms. Gifty Lano urged Ghanaians to collectively fight the COVID-19 pandemic through the vaccination saying the gesture will help stop the rapid spread of the virus. For her part, Mr. Esther Bamfo, the President of, Community Health Nurses Association, Ghana (COHNAG) called for a COVID-19 health platform where information and data can be shared on the pandemic as well as organise durbars to sensitize the public prior to the roll-out of the vaccine.

Mrs. Emelia Agbotta of Queen Elizabeth Hospital Glasgow, UK thanked the government for the safe arrival of the vaccines and called on Ghanaians to ignore the negative comments of the vaccine on social media.

Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu, Greater Accra Region